Pretty New Diver Looking for Tips to Better Handle Future "Situations"

[Pittsburgh_Mom]

Sounds rough. I am from Florida and dive Key Largo a couple of times a year and as often as possible up here in Palm Beach. When the seas are above 4ft, I do not dive. No fun. I take Dramamine 1 hr before getting on the boat. 1 pill if waves 2ft…2 pills if waves 3 to 4ft.

On top of the poor conditions it sounds like you had a poor operator. There are plenty of those in the Keys. Who ever it was you used for day two, I would not use them again.
Come back and try Florida again. I HIGHLY recommend Pura Vida Divers in Palm Beach County. They will cancel when the weather is bad and take you on lovely dives when the weather is good. Great people. Friendly and safety conscious.

Thank you so much! I like that formula for tablets and wave height. Do you still feel a bit of nausea when you dive, once you've taken the tablets? Or do they just make everyone A-okay? I found the mental anxiety over whether I'd get sick again on day 2, after day 1, to be tough!

I just did a little Googling about Palm Beach. It sounds like there is often great visibility, but mostly drift diving. Is the current pretty similar, do you think? Or is it calmer, or worse? I probably need more experience before doing the Atlantic much, but I am sure looking forward to the practice!

 

[Pittsburgh_Mom]

You did fine with the actual diving.

I think one you should take away from this is that sometimes the best option is to not get on the boat. You should have your own criteria for acceptable conditions instead of relying on the boat to cancel for you.

Another thing is the importance of pre-dive research. Research the ops and how things work in that area well before you book a trip. In general, you are expected to be able to do everything on your own in the US, while you can more often count on DMs and crew helping with every aspect of the dive in the Caribbean. But this varies from place to place and operator to operator, so you need to verify.

Thanks! I do not mind setting up my own gear at all or anything like that. I frankly prefer to so I know it's done right. I struggled, though, when the boat was pitching so much and tanks were slamming, etc. I was trying so hard not to vomit... everyone kept saying if I hurried and got in the water I'd feel all better, and I fell for it. I know better now!

Do you have your own criteria for when you would call a dive? I am really curious what that looks like for other divers just as a set of standards, though I'm sure it varies quite a bit based on experience, personal preferences, etc. Thank you again!

 

[Pittsburgh_Mom]

This is south Florida reality: almost always someone on the boat pukes. Before you jump to any conclusions about yourself as diver, try diving in the Caribbean, it is way more relaxing.

Ha, I had no idea that the Keys were so choppy. Thank you! I dove in Jamaica and loved that and had zero problems. I guess I thought the waters and diving across both places would be comparable.

 

[Pittsburgh_Mom]

You seemed to handle yourself fine as a diver, so don't feel like this suggests anything wrong with your skills. The dive-operators sounded like they didn't care ,and weren't paying attention, and some of the behavior was absurd .

I don't really have much advice, but I'd suggest there are some meta-lessons here. For example, researching weather conditions before a dive. Signs your guide or staff really don't care. Don't descend to the bottom alone, even if told to do that. While preparing is always fine, with scuba don't allow yourself to be rushed. Figure out what medications or other steps you can take to reduce sea-sickness before your next sea-dive.

Anyway, most importantly, you did fine as a diver, and don't beat yourself up over this.

Thank you! I really, really appreciate the encouragement and great summary of key lessons. I am excited to dive again... but will do things differently for certain!

 

[Pittsburgh_Mom]

Pretty much a 100% consensus here. You had a crap time but managed to keep it together.

Before you judge yourself too harshly, consider that the only real difference between your actions, and those of a more seasoned diver, is the seasoned diver would have probably called the dive before jumping.

No reflection on you, it's just one of the inevitable potholes on the diving learning curve.

Thank you SO much! I greatly appreciate it and will be a lot more careful and proactive in the future!

 

[Pittsburgh_Mom]

So true. I had over a 100 dives all around the Caribbean no issues and most of them boat diving, before I went to the Keys and came close to puking on the boat and definitely fed the fishes on one dive. I was not used to such shallow dives and the effects of the surge.

Thank you. This is HUGELY encouraging. Not that I want anyone else to ever feel unwell, but knowing this area affects others similarly, and not always right after having a storm, makes me feel a lot better!

 

[Pittsburgh_Mom]

About the only thing I can add is candied dried ginger is a miracle cure for seasickness. We can sometimes find it at Target. Just take small bites of a piece on the way out. A friend takes hard ginger candies and they are almost as good.

My wife sometimes has problems with seasickness. Bobbing on the surface is the worst part for her. After the dive when everyone is waiting to get on the boat, she will hang about 10 feet below as long as vis is good and the seas are relatively calm. I keep an eye on her from the surface until a spot opens up to get on the boat and she surfaces.

Finally, unless it is smooth as glass, reg stays in and mask on until I'm on the boat. A mouth full of seawater just sucks.

You'll be fine, just pick your dive days and dive ops a little better. Soon there will be a perfect day with great vis and calm seas, you'll find a dive op that cares about providing a quality dive service, and life will be good again.

The dive op that left you alone as a brand new diver in rough conditions needs to know they have a divemaster that needs to be running the desk...or working at McDonalds. Getting you in the water and submerged does help with seasickness, that was good advice. Leaving you by yourself, not so much.

Good luck,
Jay

Thank you so much, Jay! This is all super helpful. Bobbing on the surface seems to be better for a lot of people, so it's comforting to know I'm not a total oddball! I did ask about hanging on the line on day 2, but I ended up not needing to with everything else that was occurring.

I'll definitely go for ginger candies in the future, or candied ginger. I had something like that when I was pregnant that helped a lot, and I'll hunt them down next time before I dive!

For keeping the reg in and mask on--I tried hard to do that, but the waves kept knocking my reg out and knocked my mask askew at one point when I was trying to get my blasted fins off under me. Any tips for that? That was the hardest for me and, I'm sure, a major contributor to me getting sick as I was also getting tossed about.

 

[Diverlady13]

Day 1 was with Key Dives, and I was really pleased with them.

My Day 2 place, I feel funny badmouthing a place by name, but I can tell you I was hesitant to dive with them because I'd heard they were the biggest "cattle boat" operation there. (I don't mind sharing if you want to PM me). I will say, I spoke with some super experienced divers with whom I dove at Key Dives, and they had dove with the other operator (that I had such a tough time with Day 2) and thought my Day 2 place was better. Their sense was the other place was way more laid back and enjoyable than Key Dives. While I def think Day 2 Operator was TOO lax, from my own experience and comments by other divers when I was there, I can also see clearly that there are different vibes that different folks like, and that makes tons of sense for me. I mean, that's like anything, right? Some people love giant SUVs, and some like little electric cars.., the world is full of folks who like different things, and diving preferences must be the same, too.

Sorry this is going to be long-winded, but I hope my perspective helps since I'm a relatively new diver as well. (Certified in October 2019.) I'm certain it's the same dive op that we used in Key Largo. We did have a couple of very good dives with them. I ended up having a guide all to myself on one dive and she was terrific about pointing things out that I would have missed because my buoyancy still wasn't quite there at the time. I feel like some of their issues are due to quite a fast growth. I'm sure covid didn't help when we were there either. What I found is that some boats had lots of experienced staff and other boats had too many inexperienced staff. Then again, I was pretty new at the time of the trip, so I do think that some of the issues were expectations vs. reality. I'm PADI certified and have found that, while the courses are good, that the point of view taught tends not to be how things are done in real life. Sometimes that's good, but other times not. For example, while we are taught to never dive alone, I have found that it's not uncommon for boat crew to point a diver toward their group and tell them to descend and meet up. It's then up to the diver as to whether they think that is a good idea or not. In bad vis like you had, I likely would have called the dive unless I was able to spot the group once it was pointed out.

That said, as a (now former) business owner, I tend to analyze business practices when I see things that could be improved. That outfit does a lot of training and they have a lot of interns which I believe is the reason for some of my own complaints. We WERE quite happy with a lot of things there. They generally do a good job of confirming schedules and are great about only charging for the dives you do. For example, my husband had to sit out a dive (long story) and was not happy about it because it was basically the guide's fault. At the time I wondered if we'd overreacted, but looking back with more experience, I do still feel like what happened was on the guide...not on the divers affected. The OP took that dive off of our bill without us even asking. They also were so kind to us when my son decided he didn't want to complete his course. We didn't ask nor expect a refund, but they didn't charge us which was so so so nice. (We'd taken him on this trip so he could get certified.) His instructor got a bit tip though. So I do feel they are very reputable despite having some growing pains.

Now having another 40ish dives (since diving in KL), I don't feel the op is lax in its practices. They expect certified divers to be responsible for themselves and to know their own limits. It's difficult when you're a newer diver and feel like everyone is watching to see how you do. They're not....and if they are, it's really not their business unless it's an instructor you're taking a course from. I promise that it gets easier to discern your limits the more you dive. I have seen substantial improvements in my own diving in the last 6 months. However, this OP did really rush us into the water which I find annoying. Again, I'm typically ready to go pretty fast, but I will not give up my own safety checks to accommodate the boat's tardiness in departing. I do think that there were some safety issues on one dive in particular which could have been avoided by having at least one experienced person on the crew (other than the captain).

So now you know that cattle boats are not for everyone. One thing my husband and I learned by diving in KL is that we just don't like diving that way. We far prefer substantially fewer people - a 6 or 8 pack is great for us! We've been doing a lot of diving in Mexico this year (as well as a Belize LOB). Diving in groups no larger than 4 people, but often just the two of us not following a guide, has been wonderful as well as educational.

 

[uncfnp]

@Pittsburgh_Mom Just a little SB inservice and you may already know. If you want to thank someone but don’t really need to do a full reply, just hit the “like” at the bottom right on their post and then they will know you appreciate the post without a full reply. For example…

 

[SlugLife]

Thank you so much, Jay! This is all super helpful. Bobbing on the surface seems to be better for a lot of people, so it's comforting to know I'm not a total oddball! I did ask about hanging on the line on day 2, but I ended up not needing to with everything else that was occurring.

I'll definitely go for ginger candies in the future, or candied ginger. I had something like that when I was pregnant that helped a lot, and I'll hunt them down next time before I dive!

For keeping the reg in and mask on--I tried hard to do that, but the waves kept knocking my reg out and knocked my mask askew at one point when I was trying to get my blasted fins off under me. Any tips for that? That was the hardest for me and, I'm sure, a major contributor to me getting sick as I was also getting tossed about.

One of the best things to do is hang out just below the surface at about 5-15ft. That's a general-concept, but there are plenty of exceptions, so you'll need to decide based on your environment and context. For example how much air you have, how long you're likely to wait, whether or not that makes it difficult for you to connect with your dive-buddy or find the dive-guide, how big the waves are, and more.

If you have a SMB or DSMB ("safety sausage"), you can inflate that and place it under your arms, like a life-raft or inner-tube.